San Michele

The Isola di San Michele
has been Venice's main cemetery since early in the 19th Century, when
French occupation authorities decided that disposing of corpses in the
crowded, urban environment of Venice's centro storico was bad
for public health.

We've already written about the island in our
illustrated San Michele
Cemetery article, so on this page, we'll just show you aerial photos
and identify key details.

The first satellite image looks straight down on San
Michele. To the south, you can see Venice's
Fondamenta Nuove waterfront, with
a
vaporetto
and airport boat
station just below the words "Venezia - San Michele." On the north,
the tip of Murano--an island known for its
glass factories and workshops--juts into the frame.

The second photo is a close-up that shows about
three-quarters of the island. At upper left, you'll see the
Chiesa di San Michele in Isola
and the cemetery headquarters. The Cimitero watebus stop is
on the left edge of the island. The rest of San Michele is divided
into sections with temporary and permanent graves, mausoleums for
exhumed bones, and other facilities for the dead and their
caretakers. (The island has been enlarged several times since the
mid-1850s, and and the current
expansion project was still underway when we last visited the
cemetery.)